Reflection on James 3 1-12 taken from The Message
As the weather turned colder, I was making soup this week, I cut my finger in an awkward place that really hurt. It wasn’t even my sharpest knife it was a medium sized regular kitchen knife, the sort everyone has in their kitchen to prepare and eat food with. Sometimes a everyday knife can just be a tool, but in the hands of the wrong person, or if misused it can become a weapon.
Whilst cooking I was listening to James 3, this week’s reading, and I thought how words can also become weapons when used irresponsibly, if we use words wrongly, they can cause damage to other people, and we all get it wrong at times according to the author of James. An off the cuff clumsy remark is one end of the scale, and intentional bullying or discriminatory remarks are at the other. If we look at the news, or watch leaders debate ( I caught some of the leadership debates in the USA this week) we can see how this can be amplified to create bigger problems that affect the world and peoples perception of it. James says ‘by our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.’ (James 3:6).
However, the author of James is clear about the nature of our words suggesting that ‘you can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame the tongue’. Science tells us that it is not just the tongue that is involved in forming words it is the lungs, larynx, mouth and lips. Moreover, it is the heart and mind that forms the patterns of our words and what we say. It is important to consider this as Christians because on one hand we are
influenced by what we read and watch and who we talk to and listen to, and on the other hand the reduced time in our schedules means it harder to spend time reading scripture and spending time in prayer listing to God. So, it is important to take stock and look where our guidance is coming from, what how our worldview is formed, because it is this that guides our tongue. To tame our tongues perhaps first we consider where the information that guides us comes from because with our calling to be followers of Christ we have a responsibility to make sure we use the right words to communicate God’s unconditional love.
Amen
Revd Michaela Barker
James 3 1-12 From The Message translation
3 1-2 Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7-10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
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